1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to systems and methods for distribution of digital content over a computer network. More particularly, the invention concerns systems and methods to allow content providers to deliver to consumers secured content subject to digital management rules.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The distribution of digital content (“content”) continues to expand as digital content providers (“providers”) utilize the Internet as a vehicle for distributing content. Content may be in the form of, for example, video, audio, text, or any combination thereof, which may be accessed or distributed as a single file or as a data stream. As used here, the term “presentation” refers to digital content packaged as audio, video, text, or any combination thereof, for use by digital content consumers (“consumers”). For example, a presentation can be digital content in the form of a musical piece, a picture or image, a movie, a magazine article, an excerpt from a text, etc. As used here, the terms “digital content,” “content,” “content item,” “data,” “presentation,” and “multi-media presentation” are synonymous unless the use of any one of these terms is otherwise explicitly qualified.
To facilitate the distribution of content, providers often rely on a digital content distributor (“distributor”) to host and distribute the content. Typically, the distributor advertises the content and provides access to it over the Internet. Distributors allow providers to focus on producing content, rather than spend their resources handling the technical issues of distributing the content online. Distributors increase consumers' access to content because consumers can obtain varied content from multiple providers merely by accessing a single node on a network, e.g., a Web site.
Additionally, distributors can improve content security for providers that desire to control the access or distribution of their content. Content security refers to techniques for ensuring that electronic data stored in computing devices or transmitted between or among nodes of a network cannot be read, copied, displayed, altered, etc., without proper authorization. Most security measures involve data encryption and passwords. A password is a secret word, key, or phrase that must be used to access content or a system that handles content.
Typically providers desire to control consumer access to presentations. The term “access” refers to a privilege to use presentations in some manner. The term “access control” refers to mechanisms and policies that restrict access to computing resources such as computing devices, digital content, etc. For example, the provider might grant to a consumer read-only access to presentations, meaning that the consumer can view, listen to, or read the presentation but cannot modify, copy, or delete it.
It is common for providers to control access to presentations by using, for example, digital rights management (“DRM”) systems. As used here a DRM system refers to devices or techniques for controlling the access and/or the distribution of data, e.g., data circulated via the Internet. Typically, a DRM system protects presentations by either encrypting the data so that only authorized consumers can access it or by marking the presentation with a digital watermark or similar method to prevent free distribution of the presentation. Additionally, usually DRM technologies impose constraints on the use of presentations that correspond to the terms of the agreement between provider, distributor, and consumer.
What is needed in the industry are flexible systems and methods that allow providers to secure their content and configure digital rights management rules to govern the content. These systems and methods should allow providers to offer secured content to consumers without necessarily attaching the DRM rules to any one single piece of content available on a computer network. Thus, the industry needs a system and method that allows application of DRM rules to content at the time of use, rather than at the time of creating or securing the content.